Wallace says wins aren't a priority

[one-eyed]

Wallace says wins aren't a priority
04 April 2005   
Herald Sun
Grantley Bernard

TERRY Wallace is insistent winning is not a priority for Richmond right now. Not even after breaking a 15-game losing streak and not with a match against his former club, the Western Bulldogs, next on the Tigers' agenda.
 
The new Richmond coach says the Tigers suffered a season-opening spanking by Geelong by being too focused on winning, but achieved a long-awaited victory over Hawthorn at the MCG yesterday by not being concerned with the result.

It was all about improving and implementing the Wallace game plan rather than constantly looking at the scoreboard, and the Tigers boss will not be swayed from that approach when he faces the Bulldogs for the first time since walking out of Whitten Oval with one game left in 2002.

Even though Wallace gave seven seasons to the Bulldogs as coach and several more as a player and assistant coach, he is adamant the game on Sunday at Telstra Dome does not hold any personal feelings for him and the focus will be on the Tigers taking another step forward.

"I know it's rivalry week (and) it's interesting that was the game, but we're not going to buy into that," Wallace said after the Tigers' 14-point win over Hawthorn.

"It's a game of footy. Both sides have had one win, both sides are developing sides. It will be an interesting challenge for our guys.

"You just can't afford to (get personally involved).

"Every week there's something coming up and you could buy into that every single week if you wanted to. I know there's others will try to buy into that for us, but we've got a job to do."

After being dismantled by Geelong in a "diabolical" performance last week, Wallace stressed the need to follow the processes and game plan and let that take care of the game's outcome.

While it seemed the Tigers were light years away from a win against Geelong, they looked a much better team yesterday with their attack on the footy and execution of skills more in keeping with what's expected at AFL level.

"At this stage we don't want to be result-oriented and scoreboard-oriented," Wallace said. "We're in a developing stage . . . it's fantastic to get wins, but it's about improving each time you go out there and getting a little bit better with what you're trying to achieve.

"It was hard work (against Hawthorn) but sometimes those wins are good wins to have. It was just a real grind and there were some momentum-swinging changes and I didn't think either side at any stage threw in the towel."

Perhaps the most important thing for the Tigers was being able to set aside the controversy of Jay Schulz's midweek drink-driving charge and the subsequent withdrawal of the lucrative TAC sponsorship, and get on with the job.

"We had to deal with 48 hours of pretty tough stuff for any football club," Wallace said. "I just thought our guys' ability to get their heads back around and do what they needed to do was pretty good under those circumstances."

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/footy/common/story_page/0,8033,12745149%255E19771,00.html

[Harry]

Exactly right !!  I don't care if we win at the moment and I don't even look at the scoreboard these days.  I didn't even get excited after yesterdays win, because it will be short lived as the thumpings will come soon, thick and fast.  I kept a close eye on the game, and while being very disappointed with our shocking skill at times, I was impressed with how efficient we are becoming.  Again, with limited posession we managed to score a healthy score.  None of this 5-8 goal crap we saw under Frawley.  We just need to keep up the attacking mind set while improving our skill level, our clearances and our accountability.  The foundations of a more attacking game plan seem to be coming together.  It became an entertaining game after half time actually.   

[Puntroadroar]

makes you laugh when Clarkson states they outplayed us everywhere on the stats sheet but not on the score board.


LMAO Playing Direct wins you footy matches, someone should tell Clarkson that.

 

[mightytiges]

I was impressed with how efficient we are becoming.

Another stat we lead the league in - 19 possessions per goal. Mind you we're conceding the same rate. Even the Hawks entered our defensive 50 54 times  .

lol @ Harry sticking black tape across the top left corner of his tv so he can't see the mini scoreboard  .

[JohnF]

We need the right personnel to carry out the game plan properly. At the moment we're adapting to Wallace's style but we are making so many mistakes that we are allowing opposition teams to capitalise too much. Had we been playing Geelong this weeks we would have copped another 12goal+ rodgering.

Hopefully we land some skillful players in the next couple of years becuase half the 22 in Sunday's team have terrible disposal.